10 things you need to know in markets today

Pope Francis opens the Holy Door to mark opening of the Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's basilica, at the Vatican, December 8, 2015.
REUTERS/Max Rossi
Good morning! Here are the 10 things you need to know in markets on Wednesday.

Shares in Asia are down after a global commodity rout. Japan's Nikkei is down 0.98% at time of writing (6.25 a.m. GMT/1.25 a.m. ET), Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.53%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.13%. The FTSE350 mining index touched a 10-year low yesterday.

China's consumer inflation rate edged up in November, while factory gate price falls lingered at a 6-year low as the world's second-largest economy grapples with slowing growth. The consumer price index (CPI) — a main gauge of inflation — rose by 1.5% last month from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

The news on Morgan Stanley's job cuts continues to roll in. The US bank is cutting 1,200 staff, including about 470 front-office staff in its fixed income and commodities business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been appointed to the board of US bank Morgan Stanley. The Telegraph reports that Darling, who served in the Labour government from 1997 to 2010 and was head of the Treasury during the financial crisis, will start his new role on January 1.